Bon Accord Under 25s finished their North section qualifying campaign with a fine 133-114 win against their Perthshire counterparts at Woodend this afternoon.

Some unavailability resulted in a last minute reshuffle of the teams, with Kai McLaren from Portlethen making his debut and he acquitted himself very well.

Archie Scott set the tone for the day with the very first bowl of the afternoon, which was a front toucher. After 2 ends across the board, Bon Accord were 12-10 up. Things improved further when Ellis Adie's rink scored a 5 on the third end.

However, Perthshire settled into the game and finished the first half strongly to be up 64-51 up after 10 ends across the board. Owen Jack's rink stemmed the flow with a 5 at the 8th end. After 10 ends the rink scores were as follows:-

Fraser Lambert 12-9 up
Owen Jack 13-8 down
John Mackay 12-8 down
Abigayle Grant 10-9 down
Kieran Craigen 9-7 down
Ellis Adie 11-7 down

Bon Accord upped the ante in the second half to reduce the deficit and then take the lead. A run of 4, 3 and 4 in four ends from John Mackay's rink set the tone and Ellis Adie's rink got another 5 at the 14th end.

After 15 ends across the board, Bon Accord led 95-86 with the rink scores as follows:-
Fraser Lambert 18-11 up
Owen Jack 19-15 down
John Mackay 18-14 up
Abigayle Grant 18-15 up
Kieran Craigen 13-10 down
Ellis Adie 16-14 up.

Bon Accord kept their foot down in the closing stages, cheered on by a lot of spectators. Fraser Lambert's rink scored a 6 at the 17th end which put Bon Accord in a very strong position and the youngsters pushed hard for the finishing line.

After 21 ends the rink scores were:-
Fraser Lambert 32-15 up
Owen Jack 20-23 down
John Mackay 19-20 down
Abigayle Grant 21-23 down
Kieran Craigen 14-17 down
Ellis Adie 27-16 up

A brilliant win for our youngsters to secure second place in the North section with 2 wins out of 3.

Unfortunately they won't progress to the semi finals on this occasion but there is plenty to be proud of from the campaign, with several players making their debut this season - special mention to Evie Reid our youngest player who is only 8. And there were also at least 6 players unavailable today, so we should have a strong pool to pick from moving forward.

Many thanks to Woodend for the use of their facilities today, for looking after the players and spectators well with refreshments, and for providing scoreboard markers. Many thanks also to Stewart Anderson who was well used as umpire today and for other help he has provided during the season.

The future looks very bright for the Bon Accord U25 team - you should all be very proud of yourselves.

Martyn Orchard
(filling in for Derek today)